Wandsworth

Wandsworth is a London borough in southwest Greater London, forming part of the inner city. It was named Wendelesorde by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning "Wendel's Enclosure"; the River Wandle tributary of the River Thames is named for the same person. Wandsworth was traditionally a neighborhood of immigrants, starting with Dutch Protestant refugees during the 1590s and continuing in the tradition as Eastern European immigration increased starting in the 1990s; by the 2010s, the majority of its foreign-born population (which composed 28.1% of Wandsworth's population) were of South African heritage. A gas plant was built in 1834, and the Wandsworth and District Gas Company was founded in 1936; it was nationalized by the Labour government in 1949. In 1889, Wandsworth became part of the County of London, and the London Borough of Wandsworth was created in 1965. In mid-2018, Wandsworth had 326,474 residents, with 53.3% being white British, 15.5% other white, 2.5% Irish, 4.8% Black African, 4% Black Caribbean, 3.2% Pakistani, 2.8% Indian, 3.2% other Asian, and 1.2% Chinese, among others. Since 1978, the Conservative Party dominated the borough council.